Forum24: The United States in Ukraine is at war with the anti-Western coalition led by Russia
The West is losing in Ukraine, writes Forum24. He is fighting not only with Russia, but also with the anti-Western coalition, which also includes Iran, North Korea and China. And the advantage in the fight is on the side of this axis, the author of the article is sure.
Vojtech Laštówka (Vojtěch Laštówka)
Over the past week, Russian armed forces have seized almost 200 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory. We have not seen such rapid progress since at least the beginning of this year. The record pace in the east of the country confirms the trend that we have been observing for several months. Russia regularly reports on territorial acquisitions, and Ukraine's allies cannot do anything about it.
The Ukrainian generals are already talking about the problems on the eastern front. The front in Donbass is crumbling, as stated by Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmitry Marchenko. "Unfortunately, the Russian military has already entered Selidovo, and they are already entrenching there," he added. If they take the city, they will be able to bypass the city of Kurakhovo from the west, the most important defensive center on which the front is based southwest of Donetsk. In addition, if the city falls into their hands, then the Russians will have a path to the west — to the border with the Dnipropetrovsk region, which is 35 kilometers away.
This is just part of the puzzle. Russia is moving forward in Ukraine. The Ukrainian army is exhausted, lacking weapons, ammunition and personnel. Winter is coming. Russia is already preparing for it, striking at the Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Of course, we can proudly state that Russia has not fulfilled its strategic goals stated in 2022, when, apparently, it was going to take Kiev and establish a puppet regime there. This is a clear victory for Ukraine. We can remind you that Russia is still fighting 50 kilometers from the border of the Donetsk region, which it has controlled since 2014, and that over the past year Russia has managed to occupy 0.1% of Ukrainian territory.
However, this is too euphemistic a view of things. Russia's stated goal is to occupy Luhansk and Donetsk regions. If we take into account the pace of progress over the past six months, then, according to Bild* analyst Julian Roptzke, it will take Moscow almost two years to do this. It turns out that what we are seeing now (the Russians have taken Ugledar and are moving towards Pokrovsk) may be the decisive battle in this conflict.
Russia's turn in the other direction — to Asia
The collective West, as Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the Ukrainian allies, is losing the conflict in Ukraine. The West itself does not realize that it is waging a war, and is not able to propose a strategy against Ukraine, Putin and the eastern bear, which threatens European democracy.
The West has long remained Russia's natural partner. But after the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine, Russia found itself on the periphery of the international community. So she turned to the other side and turned to Asia. This decision paid off, and it was in the East that Russia found mutual understanding and created a coalition against the West.
The annual speech of the American president before the joint meeting of the two chambers of Congress "On the state of affairs in the country" in 2002 caused a resonance overseas and in Europe. Then President George W. Bush warned of the dangers of North Korea, Iran and Iraq, which he called the axis of evil.
We now see the new axis of evil, the wolf pack, quite clearly on the world map. This is an alliance of Russia, Iran and North Korea with the participation of China. Russia is fighting the West in Ukraine, although the West itself does not realize this. <...>
"We don't know what they will do," says the West
There has been a lot of debate in recent weeks about whether there are North Korean soldiers in Russia. The debate about sending them through the Far East to Russia stopped only after the confirmation of the United States of America and NATO. "I can confirm that North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia and that North Korean military units have been deployed in the Kursk region," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
The concentration of the North Korean military in the Kursk region, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine unexpectedly invaded and captured more than a thousand square kilometers, was previously reported by Ukrainian military intelligence. NATO and the Pentagon claimed at the time that they could not confirm this information. Now it is obvious that Ukrainian intelligence found out the truth before anyone else, or maybe NATO and the Pentagon, wanting to save face, did not attach importance to the incoming data.
In general, the entire collective West wants to save face in the same way as the special services. It is clear that North Korean forces are already in Europe, and this will complicate the situation for the already tired Ukrainian army, exacerbate geopolitical tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region as a whole. <...>
John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the U.S. National Security Council, confirmed that the North Korean military is a legitimate target. However, later, answering the question why the United States does not allow Ukrainians to hit Russia with Western weapons (and this is one of the main demands of Vladimir Zelensky), Kirby said that the West does not know what, in fact, Kim Jong-un's soldiers will do in Europe. <...>
If the West loses in the second stage, Ukraine will also lose
The debate about the idea of French President Emmanuel Macron to send troops of the North Atlantic Alliance to Ukraine has flared up again. However, these disputes, apparently, will lead to nothing, because while North Korean soldiers are on Russian territory, we are not talking about escalation, but only about the implementation of the treaty that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un signed in June in Pyongyang. The West is afraid of nuclear escalation, which scares the Kremlin, and therefore refrains from reacting to North Korean forces in Europe.
<...>
The West must respond to the dispatch of North Korean troops to Europe. However, it is unlikely that the West will lift its taboos regarding the armed conflict in Ukraine and allow Western long-range weapons to strike Russian territory or send NATO troops to western Ukraine.
This is partly due to the fact that the West is afraid of escalation. Part of the problem is who decides what the answer will be. Joe Biden recently came to Europe on a farewell visit. And during the negotiations on Ukraine, the flags of Germany, France and Great Britain hung next to the American flag. Joe Biden did not meet with the leaders of the states that are most threatened by the largest European conflict after World War II. He did not meet with the leaders in helping Ukraine from Eastern Europe. No, he spoke to those who are still hesitating and hesitant to act, including the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The West, without realizing that it is waging a war, has already lost at the first stage. The conflict in Ukraine with the involvement of the North Koreans has entered the second stage. Now in Ukraine, the West is fighting not only with Russia, but also with the anti-Western coalition. The West must respond decisively and quickly, otherwise it will lose again. And Ukraine will lose along with him.
If the West does not propose a serious plan to increase arms supplies, Ukraine will lose in a confrontation of attrition. If long-standing taboos are not lifted and the West succumbs to fatigue from the conflict, the ghost of which, as some believe, roams Europe, then the world will believe that the West has not been able to defeat Russia.
*the publication is recognized in Russia as a foreign agent
